Jul. 30, 2013

Written by

Under the Dome

So today’s column might seem a tad obtuse to some — maybe even a little “Inside Baseball” to others — but please hang with me on this one.

Today I want to talk about how the city does and does not communicate with you — its residents and taxpayers.

These days folks get their news and information from a lot of sources — TV and radio, news websites and blogs on the Interwebs (as I like to call them) and increasingly, through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter on said same.

And though America may have lost its newspaper reading habits (and its ability to concentrate on anything non-shiny for more than two minutes), it’s still good old shoe-leather journos who go out and report and write the news which everyone else then feeds off.

So you can imagine it’s pretty important that the governments and agencies we cover (the very entities that you support with your tax dollars) have at least something on the ball when it comes to explaining what they do, how they do it and when they do it, etc.

What’s left of the legitimate news media depends on cities like Salinas to either be consistently and regularly getting the news out about what they are doing or, barring that, have someone available all the time we can contact (i.e., a public information officer) to help us track down the information we need.

That said, the world that most journalists I know live in isn’t like yours. It’s a world filled with crazy stress, unforgiving deadlines and old, tried and true traditions and practices.

And many of us come from the “If your mom says she loves you, check it out” school of thought. It's training that has served us well.

So anyone worth their salt in my biz will tell you that the best info always comes direct from verifiable sources that you know and trust, and that if you actually have to resort taking the press release they’re handing out, you should hang your head a bit in shame.

But — and here’s the thing — if we can’t get to our favorite sources before deadline, then we need that one guy or that gal (the designated public information officer) to answer the phone and help us — whether it’s at 3 o’clock in the afternoon or 3 a.m. on a Sunday.

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Sadly, poor media relations, for the city of Salinas isn’t a new thing.

The city’s lack of a PIO was glaringly evident Friday following an officer-involved shooting on East Market Street where a known gang member was shot and killed after opening fire on pursuing officers.

I have spent a large part of my professional life in large urban areas with giant police forces — departments with resources that SPD can only dream about.

So in a city with a police force so emaciated and so deprived of resources that a residential burglary victim can’t even get an officer to come out and take a report, I totally get why Chief Kelly McMillin says he can’t really “afford” to have a dedicated PIO on the department.

But my argument to him over the weekend and my argument today is that he can’t afford not to have one, either. Simply put, having a PIO is not a luxury — it’s a necessity.

This is especially true in cases when an officer or officers have to use deadly force in the course of their duties like what happened on Friday night.

Aside from a catch-as-catch-can (but appreciated) effort at the scene by one police commander to inform some of the working media present, the department had no further comment about the matter until yours truly inquired late Saturday afternoon.

Only then — some 23½ hours after the shooting — was a first news release on the incident issued. The release didn’t have a lot of answers to the standard questions journalists are trained to ask and you readers expect to have answered.

Remember, it is the job of a responsible media to press for answers on behalf its readers, listeners and viewers. And even if the answers aren't there yet we still need to ask the tough questions and keep asking them until they are answered.

Having done a fair amount of public safety reporting before switching to politics and government, I know that some cops have surprisingly thin skins and are not keen to being publicly criticized. (Then again, who is?)

But I think in Salinas’ case, members of this cop shop know that as a columnist I have been consistently supportive of their work, their efforts and the need to get them more resources.

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Frankly, I am amazed at what Salinas cops do with the limited resources they have. As a group of dedicated civil servants, they are asked to do far more with far less all of the time and they deserve our thanks.

Heck, I’m told the conditions on some shifts are not far off what it must have been like at the Alamo in 1836 or Little Round Top in 1863 — in other words tough, grinding conditions where every available cop is thrown into the mix. Salinas officers commonly spend their entire shifts break-less, having to go from one stressful, dangerous call to the next.

We’re told that this idiot who was shot Friday was running down Market Street with a gun openly in his hand. When the gang task force ordered him to stop, he turned and fired on them. That stuff happens only in the movies, right? No, sadly it happens right here in Salinas.

So with all that said, the public safety departments of Salinas (police and fire) depend on you, members of the community, to help them. They really do. But to help them you need to understand them. The community needs a constant and open dialog with these departments and their officers.

And, like it or not, a large part of that conversation, naturally, is channeled through us — members of the news media.

Now some cops, many of whom are naturally politically conservative, will resentfully — if not angrily — say that we journalists are typically just part of the “liberal” media, that we get in the way and are underfoot with our pesky questions and that we’re always screwing up the facts.

That’s fine. They’re entitled to their opinions. And, in some cases, they may even be a little bit right.

But most modern public safety leaders these days can at least understand, if not appreciate, the role of a free press in a free society.

And it here where we come back of why the city so desperately needs a PIO.

My suggestion is to hire a civilian non-sworn PIO who can split time between City Hall and the Police Department. It wouldn’t be a perfect solution but it would be a good start.

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City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr. and the City Council need to get on board with this idea, carve out a reasonable salary and benefits package and get this done — soon. And I say this has to be a priority because it will surely be at least a year (maybe more) before city voters decide whether they will tax themselves additionally to help their sagging public safety departments.

That means that until that money starts rolling in, this police department will live or die (metaphorically speaking) on the quality of its relationship with the people of this city. If it’s cooperative, a lot of good things can happen. If it’s not or if it’s distrustful or adversarial, there will be trouble.

And the best medicine to combat distrust is, yes, you guessed it, information. I have found that the public safety departments that go out of their way to inform the press and the public tend to have the best relationships with the citizens they are tasked to serve.

And, by the way, getting an actual working journalist into the PIO gig — as versus some marketing “genius” or corporate PR flak who has never faced a real deadline or asked a tough question — is key, too. Whoever the city hires, it needs to be someone who’s been there and understands the needs of the real working media.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

So for those that haven’t fallen asleep yet and are still reading this tome, I thank you. I understand that at first blush it might seem like much ado about nothing. Believe me, though — this is about the kind of city government and public safety you have now and the kind you’d like to see it become.